John C. McGinley

John C. McGinley
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Spouse(s)	Lauren Lambert (1997 - 2001) (divorced) 1 child, Nicole Kessler (2007 - present) 1 child

John Christopher McGinley (born August 3, 1959) is an American actor, most notable for his roles as Perry Cox in Scrubs, Bob Slydell in Office Space, and Sergeant Red O'Neill in Oliver Stone's Platoon.

Early life

McGinley, one of five children, was born in the Greenwich Village section of New York City, the son of Patricia, a schoolteacher, and Gerald McGinley, a stockbroker. His paternal great-grandfather was from Donegal, Ireland. McGinley was raised in Millburn, New Jersey, and attended Millburn High School, where he played wide receiver for the school's football team. He studied acting at Syracuse University, and later at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Upon completing his education, McGinley did a variety of different work, including Off Broadway and Broadway productions, and a two-year stint on the soap opera Another World.

At the age of 20, McGinley was a ball spotter at the 1980 U.S. Open. While on the job, he exchanged a few words with professional golfer Arnold Palmer.

On the first hole, Arnold Palmer pulled his drive into a bunker and had a nasty fried-egg lie. When he got there, I asked, "What ball are you playing, Arnie?" He just glared at me and said, "A 'Palmer,' jackass!"

Career

McGinley (also known as Johnny "The Butcher" C. and sometimes credited as John McGinley), has had a prolific career, primarily as a supporting character actor. He was noticed by a casting scout while working as John Turturro's understudy in John Patrick Shanley's 1984 production of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, which led to an audition for the role of Sergeant Red O'Neill in the Oscar-winning Platoon, although his first movie role was Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty (1986). That was followed the next year with Wall Street (1987), and again the next with Talk Radio (1988). He also was featured in a 1980s Subaru commercial. He appeared in the "Celebrity Challenge" version of American Gladiators, losing to Dean Cain. McGinley wrote the script for 1990s Suffering Bastards, in which he also co-starred.

He worked continually throughout the 1990s, appearing in films such as Point Break (1991), Article 99 (1992), Wagons East! (1994), Se7en (1995), The Rock (1996), Nothing to Lose (1997) and Office Space (1999) (McGinley improvised several takes about his character's fondness for Michael Bolton). In 2007, he had a role as Chuck in the film Are We Done Yet? He has also had a small role as a gay highway patrolman in the Touchstone Pictures film Wild Hogs.

McGinley has done voiceover work on animated television series, including the superhero The Atom on several episodes of Justice League Unlimited, a guest appearance as "The White Shadow", the secret government agent overseeing Huey Freeman on The Boondocks, voicing The Whammer on the PBS Kids Go! series WordGirl as well as the lead character in the Sony PSP video game Dead Head Fred.

McGinley received critical acclaim for his performance as a serial killer in Dean Koontz's suspense drama, Intensity (1997). It became Fox's highest-rated miniseries. He worked with Koontz and Fox once more in Sole Survivor (2000).

In 2001, McGinley began work as a regular on the NBC sitcom Scrubs as the acerbic Dr. Perry Cox. Throughout the series Dr. Cox acts as an unwilling mentor to the protagonist J.D. (Zach Braff). McGinley has said that there are three things over the course of the series that he improvises: his constant usage of girls' names for JD, which he does with all his real friends; his whistle, which he describes as "a bad habit"; and his habit of touching his nose, a tribute to Robert Redford's character in The Sting; he says the gesture means "It's gonna be OK."

Since the NFL season of 2007, McGinley has played the "Commish" of the More Taste League commercials for Miller Lite. He has also done commercials for the Champions Tour, a professional golf tour for men over the age of 50. In 2008, McGinley was the narrator of the documentary of the Detroit Red Wings' 2008 Stanley Cup Championship. In 2009, McGinley narrated a commercial for ESPN.com.

McGinley wrote a 2005 book Untalkative Bunny: How to Be Heard Without Saying a Word, for Big Tent Entertainment.

Personal life

In February 1997, McGinley married Lauren Lambert. Their child, Max, born that year, has Down syndrome; While shooting Scrubs, he wears a wristband for a Down Syndrome charity. In December 2001, Lambert and McGinley divorced. In October 2002, he was chosen as "Dad of the Month" at iParenting.com. In August 2006, McGinley became engaged to yoga instructor Nichole Kessler in Malibu, whom he had dated for two years. The couple were married on April 7, 2007 in a private ceremony at their home. They have one daughter together, Billie Grace, who was born on February 2, 2008.

McGinley owns a stake in one of Billy Gilroy's New York SoHo bistros along with fellow actor Willem Dafoe. He is a close friend of John Cusack whom he likes to play golf with.

In 2006, McGinley served as the national spokesperson for the National Down Syndrome Society's annual Buddy Walk.

McGinley appeared on the television show American Gladiator in 1994, during the Celebrity Challenge.

McGinley maintains a home in Malibu, California and is well-known as a member of the "Malibu Mob", a group of celebrity friends and neighbours including John Cusack, Tony Danza, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton, beach volleyball pro Gabrielle Reece, and tennis player John McEnroe.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1986	Sweet Liberty	Floyd
	Platoon	Sgt. Red O'Neill
1987	Wall Street	Marvin
1988	Talk Radio	Stu
	Shakedown	Sean Phillips
1989	Prisoners of Inertia	Ogden
	Born on the Fourth of July
	Fat Man and Little Boy	Capt. Richard Schoenfield, MD
	Suffering Bastards	Buddy Johnson
1991	Point Break	FBI Agent Ben Harp
	Highlander II: The Quickening	David Blake
1992	Article 99	Dr. Rudy Bobrick
	Cruel Doubt	Attorney Jim Vos Burgh
	A Midnight Clear	Major Griffin
1993	Hear No Evil	Mickey O'Malley
	Watch It (film)	Rick
1994	On Deadly Ground	MacGruder
	Surviving the Game	John Griffin
	Car 54, Where Are You?	Officer Francis Muldoon
	Wagons East!	Julian Rogers
	The Last Outlaw
1995	Born to be Wild	Max Carr
	Se7en	California
	Nixon	Earl in Training Film
1996	The Rock	Marine Captain Hendrix
	Set It Off	Detective Strode
1997	Flypaper	Joe
	Intensity	Edgler Foreman Vess
	Truth or Consequences, N.M.	Eddie Grillo
	Nothing to Lose	Davis 'Rig' Lanlow
1998	The Pentagon Wars	Col. J.D. Bock
	Target Earth	Agent Vincent Naples
	The Odd Couple II
1999	Office Space	Bob Slydell
	Any Given Sunday	Jack Rose
	Three to Tango	Strauss
	The Jack Bull	Woody
2000	Sole Survivor	Victor Yates
	Get Carter	Con McCarty
2001	Summer Catch	Hugh Alexander (uncredited)
	The Animal	Sgt. Sisk
2002	Stealing Harvard	Detective Charles
	Highway	Johnny the Fox
2003	Identity	George York
2006	Puff, Puff, Pass	Jerry Dupree
	A.W.O.L.	Garris
	Two Tickets to Paradise	Mark
2007	Wild Hogs	Highway Patrolman
	Are We Done Yet?	Chuck Mitchell Jr.
2008	American Crude	Jim
2009	Life's A Trip	Mark Hewson

Television work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Clinton and Nadine
1994	Frasier	Danny Kriezel	a plumber in the episode "Seat of Power"
1997	The Practice
	Intensity
2001 - Present	Scrubs	Dr. Perry Cox	168 episodes (to date)
2002	Clone High	Voice of Doug Prepcourse
2003	Kim Possible	Voice of White Stripe
	Spider-Man: The New Animated Series	Voice of Richard Damien
2004	Justice League Unlimited	Voice of Dr. Ray Palmer/ The Atom and Phil O'Banion
2005	The Boondocks	Voice of White Shadow
2007	WordGirl	Voice of The Whammer

External links

• John C. McGinley at IMDb